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3 Stocks Boosting The Chemicals Industry Higher

Editor's Note: Any reference to TheStreet Ratings and its underlying recommendation does not reflect the opinion of TheStreet, Inc. or any of its contributors including Jim Cramer or Stephanie Link.

All three major indices are trading down today with the
Dow Jones Industrial Average (
^DJI) trading down 83 points (-0.5%) at 16,448 as of Tuesday, May 6, 2014, 12:55 PM ET. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 1,223 issues advancing vs. 1,760 declining with 164 unchanged.

The Chemicals industry currently sits down 0.5% versus the S&P 500, which is down 0.4%.

TheStreet would like to highlight 3 stocks pushing the industry higher today:

3.
Westlake Chemical (
WLK) is one of the companies pushing the Chemicals industry higher today. As of noon trading, Westlake Chemical is up $2.17 (2.9%) to $77.38 on heavy volume. Thus far, 552,960 shares of Westlake Chemical exchanged hands as compared to its average daily volume of 714,000 shares. The stock has ranged in price between $74.73-$77.51 after having opened the day at $75.29 as compared to the previous trading day's close of $75.21.

Westlake Chemical Corporation manufactures and markets basic chemicals, vinyls, polymers, and fabricated building products. It operates through two segments, Olefins and Vinyls. Westlake Chemical has a market cap of $9.5 billion and is part of the basic materials sector. The company has a P/E ratio of 15.6, below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Shares are up 23.2% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Monday. Currently there are 4 analysts who rate Westlake Chemical a buy, 2 analysts rate it a sell, and 3 rate it a hold.

TheStreet Ratings rates
Westlake Chemical as a
buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, notable return on equity, solid stock price performance and impressive record of earnings per share growth. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins. Get the full
Westlake Chemical Ratings Report now.